support helps keep programs like ours on the air.rd program lost thousands of books after hurricane sandy last month. >> brown: finally tonight, the college football season is reaching a climax of rivalries and conference championship games and its basketball season is now underway. but much of the action in college sports these days is away from the field or the court, as schools change affiliations and leagues. in the last 18 months some 30 colleges have made moves. among the most prominent, the university of louisville's departure from the big east to join the atlantic coast conference or a.c.c. and two eastern schools headed to the big ten, traditionally a midwest-based conference: the university of maryland is leaving the a.c.c. and rutgers is departing from the big east. what's going on? sportswriter and author john feinstein joins me now. john, first of all, for the uninitiated, explain the role of these conferences traditionally. how do they work and how do they divide up the college world? >> well, jeff, conferences were designed initially to take schools that were together geogr